Friday, May 19, 2017

Top Crony Leadership Will Be in Saudi Arabia With Trump

Dozens of the biggest names in US business will be following President Donald Trump to Saudi Arabia on his first official overseas visit this weekend, reports the Financial Times.

Jamie Dimon of JPMorgan Chase, Michael Corbat of Citigroup, James Gorman of Morgan Stanley, Andrew Liveris of Dow Chemical and Stephen Schwarzman of Blackstone will be among the US chief executives attending a business forum, along with General Electric vice-chairman John Rice.

They will be in the Kingdom for the Saudi-US CEO Forum will be held on the same day Trump meets King Salman.

According to FT, some of the companies are expected to help cast a glow of success over Mr Trump’s visit with announcements of contracts and investment commitments, although some are likely to be reannouncements of deals in train before the presidential election last November.

The deals will include agreements with Saudi Aramco. They involve oil services groups Schlumberger, Halliburton and Weatherford International, drilling contractors Nabors Industries and Rowan Companies, and engineering and construction companies KBR, Jacobs Engineering Group and McDermott International. A separate agreement with Baker Hughes, another oil services group in which GE is taking a controlling stake, is set to be signed later.

Dimon and Gorman will be discussing Saudi Aramco’s initial public offering, scheduled for next year. Their banks are advising on the float, and are in line for positions among the global co-ordinators and lead underwriters.